It’s almost as if there is some social contract we never knew about.
Like many people throughout the course of this week, I have received far too many messages regarding COVID-19 from Amazon, Toyota, Best Buy, and practically everyone I have ever purchased anything from in the previous decade.
Every printer, car lease, and non-fiction book comes with a free message of hope and responsibility should a global pandemic emerge unexpectedly. I wasn’t moved.
However, when Eckhart Tolle burst onto the YouTube feed offering some much needed words of comfort—then, I was game. I needed to hear what he had to say.
“I’d like to share with you a short passage from the Bible—it doesn’t happen very often that I read from the Bible as part of a teaching…” he began in his humble and quiet demeanor.
Then he continues:
“…everyone who listens to these words of Mine and does them will be like a man building a house who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And the rain came down, and the torrents came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it did not fall, for its foundation had been lain upon the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.…”
This, a much quoted parable from Matthew 7:25, as Tolle goes on to explain, is where we can find all the comfort we need if we are willing to pay heed. We are the man and we are the house and the weather elements are the adversity. We are now in a period of great anxiety and fear and if we do not keep it in the moment—if we allow ourselves to go floating off into the projected fiction of “what could happen”—we will be lost.
It is the message that Tolle has been espousing since he came to prominence as a teacher many years ago, but with a sage like Tolle, we do not expect, nor do we need anything novel. As with all great teachers, the gift lies in the practice of a simple and counterintuitive approach to life and, most especially, to less than desirable circumstances. Breathe.
In essence he is trying to remind us that our apprehension will kill us as fast as a virus if we allow it to. If we continue to approach this unprecedented situation armed with only our thoughts and our sense perception, we will be building our house on sand.
It clocks in at about 23 minutes and, as far as I am concerned, has been one of the most useful pieces of information that I have gotten off my computer since this all began unraveling in the last few weeks:
~
For more, check out some of Elephant’s most mindful, helpful COVID-19 articles:
How to Enjoy Life Amidst the Coronavirus Fear: Your Go-To Guide from Books to Podcasts & Wellness Practices.
What the Coronavirus is Teaching Me: 5 Lessons from Uncertain Times.
The Artist’s Stay-at-Home & Stay Sane Guide.
10 Simple Ways to Boost your Immunity without Leaving the House.
How to Enjoy Life Amidst the Coronavirus Fear: Your Go-To Guide from Books to Podcasts & Wellness Practices.
What the Coronavirus is Teaching Me: 5 Lessons from Uncertain Times.
The Artist’s Stay-at-Home & Stay Sane Guide.
10 Simple Ways to Boost your Immunity without Leaving the House.
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AUTHOR: BILLY MANAS
IMAGE: ECKHART TOLLE / YOUTUBE
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